By Pete Hammond HollywoodNews.com: Defying all expectations, even from the most optimistic projections of its distributor 20th Century Fox, the prequel to the venerable Planet of the Apes franchise, Rise of the Planet of the Apes scored at least $20 million more at the boxoffice than anticipated with a sterling[...]

By Scott Mendelson HollywoodNews.com: Obvious spoiler warning: I’m not going to get into every plot detail of last night’s Smallville finale. The big climactic moments were disappointing for two reasons. First, as usual with television superhero shows, the big action climax was painfully puny, especially for the payoff of ten[...]

By Sean O’Connell Hollywoodnews.com: WETA, the special effects house working on this summer’s “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” has given us a brief look at a CGI rendition of the apes. How brief? Try 5 seconds. But it’s enough to hint at how realistic these computer-generated characters will[...]

hollywoodnews.com: “Despicable Me” will cross $500 million at the worldwide box office, Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment announced today. With a current domestic gross of more than $248 million, the inaugural 3D CGI feature from Universal and Illumination is second only to Toy Story 3 in domestic gross among animated[...]

By Sean O’Connell Hollywoodnews.com: I’m trying to get excited about “The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn,” Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Georges Rémi’s revered comic strip that will be in theaters in 2011. Right now, I’m lukewarm. I didn’t grow up with the European comic, which Remi penned[...]

By Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith HollywoodNews.com: Critics may have quibbled with the ending of “The Last Exorcism,” but nobody is complaining about Ashley Bell, who has drawn across-the-board raves for her performance as the problem-riddled girl at the heart of last weekend’s top-grossing film. In London for the[...]

By Sean O’Connell Hollywoodnews.com: First came “Fantastic Foour” casting rumors, with Adrien Brody reportedly up for the elastic part of Mr. Fantastic, while Alive Eve is battling Amber Heard for the part of Sue Storm, the team’s Invisible Woman. Now we’re getting word that 20th Century Fox has a shortlist[...]

By Sean O’Connell Hollywoodnews.com: Some good news broke regarding the planned “Fantastic Four” reboot — tentatively titled “Fantastic Four Reborn” — that was announced to be in 20th Century Fox’s pipeline. It’s rumored that, after experimenting with a rubber suit worn by Michael Chiklis in Tim Story’s two “Fantastic Four”[...]

By Scott Mendelson hollywoodnews.com: It was another ‘everybody wins!’ weekend at the box office, as holdovers held well and openers opened to reasonable expectation-levels. Inception was again number one, with $43.5 million in its second weekend. That’s a borderline-shocking drop of just 30%, which is almost unheard of in this[...]

By Pete Hammond HollywoodNews.com: When I talked to director Christopher Nolan this week during a panel the night after the Hollywood premiere of his “Inception” that included many of his key crew members I started by suggesting that with the double-barreled success of “Batman Begins” and the box office juggernaut,[...]

A federal judge on Thursday said actress Lori Loughlin in October will be among eight parents accused of participating in a vast U.S. college admissions bribery and fraud scheme to face the first trial to result from the scandal.